Coyote Hit, Killed By Car In Lincoln Park

CHICAGO (CBS) — A car struck and killed a coyote Thursday morning in the park of Lincoln Park.

About 7:20 a.m. the vehicle hit the animal, either a dog or a coyote, in the 200 block of West Fullerton Drive, according to police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez.

Perez said the vehicle was not damaged, and no one was injured, though the animal was killed. No citations were issued.

“We got a phone call of an injured coyote,’’ said Cherie Travis of the city Department of Animal Care and Control, who said two investigators were sent to the scene. “He was deceased when we got there.”

At the point where the crash happened, Fullerton Drive is fully within the park. The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is just to the north on Cannon Drive, while parking for the Lincoln Park Zoo is just to the south.

The stretch of Fullerton is extremely busy during the morning rush with cars heading to and from Lake Shore Drive about two blocks farther east.

Travis said Animal Care and Control crews took the animal away and noted that coyotes have been seen in that area over the last six months or so.

In December, just off Fullerton, a coyote was rescued from a piece of ice floating in Lake Michigan; and recently another coyote that was on an overpass was rescued and moved out of the city, Travis said.

Perez said the animal had a microchip in its body and Lincoln Park Zoo spokeswoman Sharon Dewar said it may might have been being tracked as part of the Cook County Coyote Project, which is not affiliated with the zoo.

However, project principal investigator Stan Gehrt said he was notified of the animal but said it did not have an ear tag, which they normally use.

Gehrt said if the animal had a microchip there was an “outside chance’’ it was one they were tracking, but he could not be sure because they did not have the carcass as of 10:30 a.m.

“There are a few running around the Chicago metro area that are microchipped but not ear-tagged,’’ he said.